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Deck Those Halls!

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It's mid-December, so odds are good you've already decorated your home for the holidays. If so, you're ahead of me; it took us about three days to get the lights on the tree and we still have items to put up at home, not to mention lots of Christmas cards to send out.

My point is, many of us are pressed for time in this holiday season. Between braving the stores to shop for gifts, attending parties, digging out winter clothing (and seeing whether it still fits) and so forth, there's not an awful lot of extra time left to think about things like…are the lights on my tree really energy efficient?

If you're using LEDs, the answer is an emphatic YES! LEDs are very efficient, using only a small fraction of the electricity that an incandescent light uses. Even better, they're easier to find in the stores every year; where they used to be scarce, nowadays you can probably buy them right up to Christmas Eve itself.

When I was a kid, by contrast, we had those thumb-sized lights on our tree that looked good but used up a tremendous amount of electricity (and burned hot as blazes, too). I'm glad that the bulbs we're using now are cooler and use less power than those!

It's a hectic time of year, but don't overlook a chance to save some money. Surely that's cause to rejoice, isn't it?